Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Downloading anime

It is copyright infringement to download a work of authorship owned by someone else.

The relevant section of the US Code:

17 U.S.C. Sec. 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under

this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the

following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and

(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

The entertainment industry is pursuing illicit downloads aggressively (they violate 17 USC 106(1)). Free downloads usually aren't free at all; the hapless downloader -- or his/her parents -- just pay WAY MORE (as in several $thousands) for them several years later.

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